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My notes from ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom” – a selected compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
“Vedanta in Practice”, “Goal of Vedanta” and “Universality of Vedanta” – Chapter Highlights reproduced below:
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The less the thought of the body, the better. For it is the body that drags us down. It is attachment, identification, that makes us miserable. That is the secret: to think that I am the Spirit and not the body, and that the whole of this universe, with all its relations, with all its good and all its evil, is but as a series of paintings— scenes on a canvas— of which I am the witness.
The truth has to be heard, then reflected upon, and then to be constantly asserted. Think always, “I am Brahman.” Every other thought must be cast aside as weakening.
Infinite manifestation dividing itself in portions still remains infinite, and each portion is infinite.
I will ask you to understand that Vedanta, though it is intensely practical, is always so in the sense of the ideal. It does not preach an impossible ideal, however high it be, and it is high enough for an ideal. In one word, this ideal is that you are divine. “Thou art That.” This is the essence of Vedanta.
The central ideal of Vedanta is oneness. We must not look down with contempt on others. All of us are going toward the same goal. The difference between weakness and strength is one of degree. The difference between virtue and vice is one of degree. The difference between heaven and hell is one of degree. The difference between life and death is one of degree. All differences in this world are of degree and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. All is One, which manifests Itself either as thought or life or soul or body, and the difference is only in degree. As such, we have no right to look down with contempt upon those who are not developed exactly in the same degree as we are. Condemn none. If you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
Real activity, which is the goal of Vedanta, is combined with eternal calmness, the calmness that cannot be ruffled, the balance of mind that is never disturbed, whatever happens.
The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are, the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do.
Vedanta does not, in reality, denounce the world. The ideal of renunciation nowhere attains such a height as in the teachings of Vedanta. But at the same time, dry suicidal advice is not intended. It really means deification of the world— giving up the world as we think of it, as we know it, as it appears to us, and knowing what it really is. Deify it. It is God alone.
So do your work, says Vedanta. It first advises us how to work: by giving up— giving up the apparent, illusive world. What is meant by that? Seeing God everywhere. Thus do you work. Desire to live a hundred years. Have all earthly desires if you wish, only deify them, convert them into heaven. Have the desire to live a long life of helpfulness, of blissfulness and activity, on this earth. Thus working, you will find the way out. There is no other way.
When there is a conflict between the heart and the brain, let the heart be followed, because intellect has only one state, reason, and within that, intellect works and cannot get beyond. It is the heart that takes one to the highest plane, which intellect can never reach. It goes beyond intellect and reaches what is called inspiration. The intellect can never become inspired. Only the heart, when it is enlightened, becomes inspired.
It is the heart that reaches the goal. Follow the heart. A pure heart sees beyond the intellect. It gets inspired. It knows things that reason can never know. Whenever there is conflict between the pure heart and the intellect, always side with the pure heart, even if you think what your heart is doing is unreasonable.
The pure heart is the best mirror for the reflection of truth, so all these disciplines are for the purification of the heart.
When a person attains these three— a human birth, a strong desire for liberation, and the grace of an illumined soul— then his longing for Self- knowledge becomes intensified.
Be brave and be sincere, then follow any path with devotion, and you must reach the Lord. Lay hold of one link of the chain, and the whole chain must come by degrees. Water the roots of the tree— that is, reach the Lord— and the whole tree is watered. Getting the Lord, we get all.
Determine your own nature and stick to it. Nishtha [devotion to one ideal] is the only method for the beginner, but with devotion and sincerity it will lead to all.
Neither seek nor avoid. Take what comes. It is liberty to be affected by nothing. Do not merely endure— be unattached.
Religion without philosophy runs into superstition. Philosophy without religion becomes dry atheism.
Man has an idea that there can be only one religion, that there can be only one Prophet, that there can be only one Incarnation, but that idea is not true. By studying the lives of all these great Messengers, we find that each was destined to play a part, as it were, and a part only— that the harmony consists in the sum total, and not in one note.
None can make a spiritual man of you. You have to teach yourself. Your growth must come from inside. What can an external teacher do? He can remove the obstructions a little, and there his duty ends. Therefore help, if you can, but do not destroy. Give up all ideas that you can make men spiritual. It is impossible. There is no other teacher to you than your own soul. Recognize this.
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